Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, a photo by eL hue V on Flickr.

not according to plan

I started painting this piece at an event, but it got shut down (thanks to a negative state rep or city councilwoman or whatever her title was). I wanted to see it through to completion since I only had a pencil sketch, so I finished it on Illustrator. - Delve

CHANGE GON' COME...2011

The other day I get a phone call from my homie ENOS telling me my GANDHI mural was defaced. I was like "nah, your kidding...that wall has been running over 3 years?! Who would take it out?". He told me he was serious and to drive by there and check it out. Low in behold, I drive up to the wall, and it splattered with white house paint..with a large portion of the face gone. I started to think who would do such a thing. I have no beef on the streets with anyone...at least not to my knowledge. And if someone were beefing with me...they should have at least left their name...any graffiti cat would of done that...so I ruled that factor out. Then I thought it may have been someone who would of had a problem with Gandhi himself(I had a wall vandalized before because it went against a community religious beliefs). But the question remained...after 3 years who would do this?

That wall...out of every wall I produced held the most esteem with me. It was the first wall I produce without sanction during the daylight hours www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOooVl-pKE. This was the wall that literally put into motion the entire idea of SAGE Collective and our philosophy. I took major risks to put this wall up and it is one of the few I wanted to keep in tact no matter what. Massive amounts of energy was put forth to make sure that wall went up..and stayed up.

The following day. I got together with LUV-1 to redo the wall. We originally had another location set up, but due to the circumstances, decided to shift our attention to restoring this mural. After about one and a half hours of painting, this weird dude approached us and started taking pics of us with his phone and would then run off. We brushed it off as nothing...but I knew the dude..he lived in the arts building just across the way. I then took a break and ran to the store to get water. When I came back, LUV told me dude said he messed up the wall and he was calling the cops on us. I was like "WHAT THE FUCK?"...Whats this dudes deal?!" I knew him from the arts building...and also knows he is a lil' "touched" mentally..so I again brushed it off as craziness.

About ten minutes later, The cops show up. LUV and myself stop painting to see what the problem is. The officer came over to us..told us we were good and that the dude who called them is a lil crazy and they have been getting complaints about him for sometime. We told him that we were restoring the old mural that was up here because someone vandalized it. The officer then looked at us...shook his head in disbelief...saying: "Shame, this wall was up for years...who would do such a thing". We told him we had an idea, but was not certain and had no proof, but in any event, its getting a makeover.

Over the next 3-4 hours LUV and myself tooled away at the wall. LUV worked his usual abstract expressionistic designs throughout the background and I focused on the figure of Ghandi. The funny thing is the first time I did this wall, their was an unbelievable amount of stress involved...this time...smooth sailing. LUV and myself jammed out and we produced something we are truly proud of. I have been trying to figure out what does all this mean. And one conclusion I came to realize is its simply growth. This wall was first done alone...with no set plan...no true direction as to what may come. This time, It was a team effort..and in my opinion, a better over all mural. It started off as a risky gamble and turn into a major success.

We finished up, took pics and talked about how smooth the day was and about the unbelievable odor of piss in the alley where we were painting. LUV asked me did I think dude would take it out again. I said "nah, I don't think so...dude is a lil schizo...I believe its isolated. To rough him up or anything of violents is not necessary for someone like that...he's in his own private hell". But if it does happen again...I know where he lives.

Check out the amazing video produced by LUV-ONE of the days proceedings...peace. -Will Kasso

BBoy BBQ 2011 recap

Not much to share far as SAGE painting at the BBoy BBQ in Philly due to a politician shutting down the aerosol mural. Apparently the wall on the block chosen was in an anti-graffiti zone. The po po was deep, with the Seargent of Police and if we'd of kept painting we would have gotten locked up. So the only flicks I have are blackbooking and sitting down. Here's 45 minutes into what my piece was going to be. The video is of some of the breakers going at it in the early afternoon, including my little guy at the jump. NEXT YEAR IT'S ON! - LUV1

THE GARDEN VARIETY SHOW: WELCOME TO THE TERRADOME

NO NAME SOCIETY B/W S.A.G.E. COLLECTIVE PRESENTS:

THE GARDEN VARIETY SHOW: WELCOME TO THE TERRADOME

Featuring performances by:

Fizix
Spitatainment
Blackout (M.O.)
Steve Smiff
Zu Ninjaz
Rhymageddon
The Knowmadz
Shawn Lov
Mr Fickle (Of B-Boy Akademy)
Tone Liv (of Remarkable Mayor)
The Cause & Knowledge
Paperface

+ Open Mic Cipher (W/ Beats provided by Hellfire)

$5 DONATION!

Hosted By Popa Chief

Sounds from Divine Drummah and DJ M.Fasis

TERRACYCLE WAREHOUSE
121 NEW YORK AVE. TRENTON, NJ

KASSO IN LONDON, ENGLAND

I recently was sponsored to go to London for a few days. Man, it was like hitting the lottery! A company that is related to the arts, that I have been loosely working with over the past year, asked me to be apart of a unique focus group for the development of a new product. Im not at liberty to go any further in my description due to my signing of a disclosure agreement. In any event, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

The draw back is that I only had a few days in London, but I did have one full day to explore the sights and sounds of Europe's "New York City". I ate traditional foods like "fish and chips" and the "full english breakfast"...and did mostly touristy stuff like see "big ben" and "Buckingham palace".

The following day was all work. Myself and some local graffiti artist took part in the focus group. Toward the end of the sessions, I convinced some of the higher ups to let me rock a wall at their factory. They set me up with a wall...primed and ready to go. It was on the small side...but with only a few hours to paint...ended up being the prefect size.

After I finished painting, a few of the young ladies from the office took me out for dinner and drinks...a great way to cap off a few, but exciting days abroad!

-Will Kasso

Student mural

After three quick, concentrated sessions, the students in the after-school art class I guest-taught completed this mural. To push them into new territory, I required them to paint images of non-sentient things. We were all pleased with the resulting mural, especially considering the formidable challenges the students faced. First, they had only a short amount of class time to practice painting with cans, design their wall, and execute their plan. Second, out of the eight students whose imagery was included in the sketch for the wall, two didn't show up for any of the painting days, and others were only able to paint for some of the time due to schedule conflicts, so there was a nucleus of three or four students who really pulled a lot of weight in terms of getting this mural done. Numerous passersby stopped to share encouragement and their appreciation of the students' work. I'm proud of the students' effort and the way they worked as a team to complete their project.

-DELVE

Memorial Weekend Performances

Was lucky to be painting around some incredible talent out here in Jerz this last weekend, here's a couple snippets I found.  Told you that Garden Variety cypher was illin!